Does job complexity mitigate the negative effect of emotion-rule dissonance on employee burnout?

In interactions with clients or patients, human service workers are at risk of experiencing discrepancies between felt and organizationally mandated emotions (i.e. emotion-rule dissonance). Given the documented detrimental effects of such discrepancies on employee strain, the present study investigated whether job complexity mitigates the relation between emotion-rule dissonance and employee burnout using data from a two-wave panel study of eldercare workers (N?=?583, 16-month time lag). Structural equation modelling revealed that emotion-rule dissonance at Time 1 preceded emotional exhaustion and depersonalization at Time 2. Beyond that, employees whose work offered job complexity were found to suffer less from emotional exhaustion and depersonalization when encountering discrepancies between felt and stipulated emotions compared to employees who conducted noncomplex work. Thus, designing complex tasks appears to be a crucial starting point for alleviating employee burnout in jobs that provoke emotion-rule dissonance.     

How do you really feel? Effect of leaders' perceived emotional sincerity on followers' trust

We extend research on leadership and emotions by addressing two previously under-researched areas. Prior research has focused primarily on the valence of leaders' displayed emotion and on followers' affective reactions to those displays. In contrast, we examined followers' cognitive reactions to the perceived sincerity of leaders' displayed emotion. Study 1 found that American workers' trust in a leader was related to their perceptions of that leader's emotional sincerity. Study 2 replicated these results among Chinese workers, and further indicated the mechanisms through which perceived emotional sincerity influenced trust and showed how trust influenced performance. The findings demonstrate the importance of including emotional sincerity in studies of leader affect, and suggest the value of adding a cognitive perspective to the current focus on followers' affective reactions to their leaders' emotions.     

Leading via the heart and mind: The roles of leader and follower emotions,attributions and interdependence

How do followers react to their leaders' emotional expressions, and how do these reactions influence followers' perceptions of their leaders' effectiveness? This research examines cognitive and emotional reactions to leaders' expressions of positive and negative emotions, and demonstrates how these reactions affect perceptions of leadership effectiveness. We show that follower interdependence (dispositional or manipulated) plays an important moderating role in understanding reactions to leaders' emotions. Results of three studies demonstrate that followers not only share their leaders' emotions, but also make attributions about the sincerity of their leaders' intentions, and these attributions affect their perceptions of their leader's effectiveness. Results also demonstrate that interdependent followers are sensitive to leader emotional valence and react more positively to leader positivity; non-interdependent followers do not differentiate positive from negative emotions in their leader. We discuss the implications of our research for the literature on leadership.     

Are More Competent Workers More Satisfied?

Abstract. In this paper, we analyse the relationship between workers' competencies and their job satisfaction in the context of dual (i.e. vocational versus communicative) skill demands. We analyse the effects of workers' competencies on their overall, intrinsic, and extrinsic job satisfaction. We focus on pharmacy assistants who need both pharmaceutical and communicative competencies in their work. Results from a linked employer–employee survey show that assistants with more communicative competencies are more satisfied with their job, whereas assistants with more pharmaceutical competencies are not more satisfied than the less competent assistants. In addition, workers who perform tasks below their level of competence are more dissatisfied with both their remuneration and career prospects and the content of their job as such, than were other workers. Our results indicate that the demand shift from vocational towards communication skills, which occurs in many professions, can affect the job satisfaction of the most competent workers.     

TEAM INCENTIVES: EVIDENCE FROM A FIRM LEVEL EXPERIMENT

Many organizations rely on teamwork, and yet field evidence on the impacts of team‐based incentives remains scarce. Compared to individual incentives, team incentives can affect productivity by changing both workers’ effort and team composition. We present evidence from a field experiment designed to evaluate the impact of rank incentives and tournaments on the productivity and composition of teams. Strengthening incentives, either through rankings or tournaments, makes workers more likely to form teams with others of similar ability instead of with their friends. Introducing rank incentives however reduces average productivity by 14%, whereas introducing a tournament increases it by 24%. Both effects are heterogeneous: rank incentives only reduce the productivity of teams at the bottom of the productivity distribution, and monetary prize tournaments only increase the productivity of teams at the top. We interpret these results through a theoretical framework that makes precise when the provision of team‐based incentives crowds out the productivity‐enhancing effect of social connections under team production.     

Employer Wage Differentials in Germany: A Comparative Note

The paper contributes to the growing empirical literature on employer wage differentials, presenting first estimates for West Germany and comparing them with recent findings from other studies for the USA, France and Denmark. The empirical results show that the variation of global employer wage differentials is comparatively low in West Germany and has remained stable during the first half of the 1990s. This low dispersion results from wage setting for blue‐collar workers, while cross‐country differences are negligible for white‐collar workers. Employer wage differentials have, however, become more important for the remuneration of West German blue‐collar workers during the period investigated.     

机会公平、倾斜政策与不对称锦标赛:一项实验研究

采用实验研究的方法评价机会公平规则和倾斜政策对员工努力水平及雇主收益的影响.利用对130个被试进行的7个实验,本文获得了如下研究结论:与基准实验相比,在不公平锦标赛实验中,被试的努力水平有所降低;在不对称锦标赛实验中,随着代理人能力不对称程度逐渐增加,有利被试和不利被试选择的努力水平均会减少;在倾斜政策实验中,实施倾斜政策并没有增加员工的总产出,因而也没有提高雇主的收益.文末从企业组织和政府政策两方面分析了研究结论的实际意义.     

The awestruck effect: Followers suppress emotion expression in response to charismatic but not individually considerate leadership

This study examines how followers regulate their outward expression of emotions in the context of two types of leadership that are commonly associated with transformational leadership, namely charismatic leadership and individually considerate leadership. Based on new theorizing and a series of three studies involving experiments and field work, we show that the two types of leadership have different effects on followers' emotional expressiveness. Specifically, we find that followers under the influence of leaders' charisma tend to suppress the expression of emotions (we call this the “awestruck effect”), but followers express emotions when leaders consider them individually. Awestruck followers may suffer from expressive inhibition even as charismatic leaders stir their hearts.     

Emotional reactions to daily workload: The moderating role of attachment orientations

Attachment theory provides compelling theoretical grounds to expect that attachment orientations, i.e. attachment anxiety and avoidance, influence our emotional reactions to job stressors. In spite of that fact, the role of attachment orientations in attenuating or exacerbating emotional reactions to job stressors has been ignored by organisational researchers so far. The main purpose of our diary study, therefore, was to analyse, whether attachment anxiety and avoidance moderate our daily emotional reactions to daily workload. Additional main effects of attachment orientations on daily emotional experiences were also analysed. Multilevel analyses of diary data from 340 participants revealed moderator effects of attachment avoidance. In detail, global and co-worker-specific avoidance interacted with workload in predicting negative emotions. Regarding positive emotions, co-worker-specific avoidance interacted with workload. In addition, global attachment anxiety and avoidance were positively related to negative emotional experiences at work. The negative relationship between co-worker-specific avoidance and positive emotional experiences at work was significant by trend. Taken together, current findings demonstrate attachment orientations’ contribution to our understanding of interindividual differences in daily emotional reactions to daily job stressors, and in daily work-related emotions. In sum, they suggest highly avoidant employees as a risk group in the working population.     

Identity Work and Emotions: A Review

This paper reviews the empirical literature on identity work and identifies two distinct approaches to incorporating emotion. The majority of empirical studies use emotion to describe the experiences of identity work. In doing so, the authors (a) mention the emotions that people feel in situations that trigger identity work, (b) illustrate identity work as an emotional endeavour, and (c) describe the emotional impact of successful and unsuccessful identity work. There is also an emerging literature that examines the mutual constitution of emotions and identity work. These authors address emotional labour, affective social identification, emotional attachment and detachment, and humour when studying identity work. This paper suggests that, to understand better the relation between emotions and identity work, future research should examine the role of emotions in problematizing identity, the emotional constitution of the identity work experience, the intersection of emotions and other ways of knowing the self, and the links between emotions and power in identity work.     

Emotionality and leadership: Taking stock of the past decade of research

As scholars continue in their quest to find factors that are related to leadership style, leadership behavior, and leadership effectiveness, we observe a revival in interest with regards to emotionality. As recent research suggests the rising importance of emotional reasoning over intelligence in leadership, the complex phenomena surrounding emotions in the workplace spur studies with contradictory, albeit important, results. The purpose of this review is to unify and integrate research conducted in the past decade that links emotionality with leadership style, behavior, and effectiveness. In conducting this review, we observed four running themes: emotional competencies of leaders (e.g. emotional expressiveness and emotional intelligence), stress in leadership, contagion of positive and negative affect, and the effects of leaders' emotions on outcomes like burnout and performance. On top of taking stock of studies that theoretically and empirically test these relationships, we also summarize literature on potential mechanisms that link emotionality with leadership and highlight directions for future research.     

Only Time Can Tell: Whether and When the Improvement in Career Development Opportunities Alleviates Knowledge Workers’ Emotional Exhaustion in the Chinese Context

Through extending the resource perspective, drawing on the temporal comparison theory, this study examines career development opportunities (CDOs), focusing on knowledge workers and considering the relative changes in CDOs before and after their job change in the Chinese context. Findings from a survey of 379 Chinese knowledge workers who have transferred their jobs at least once reveal that the improvement of CDOs can have a double‐edged‐sword effect on knowledge workers’ well‐being, shown as emotional exhaustion in this study. Although the improvement of CDOs negatively predicts knowledge workers’ emotional exhaustion in general, findings of a three‐way interaction reveal that offering more high‐quality CDOs can aggravate emotional exhaustion when knowledge workers have been working in their present position for a relatively long period, but have not received a pay rise. This study makes a theoretical contribution by introducing boundary conditions and testing their interactive influence. It helps broaden understanding of how CDOs can affect knowledge workers’ emotional exhaustion. It also has implications for enhancing the well‐being of knowledge workers, particularly in national and organizational contexts where there are significant skill shortages and retention problems.     

Emotional intelligence and leadership emergence in small groups

We report the findings from two studies that examine the association between emotional intelligence and leadership emergence in small groups. In both studies, members of groups completed measures of emotional intelligence and other individual differences prior to working on a group project. Their peers rated their leadership emergence at the conclusion of the project. Overall emotional intelligence and a number of its dimensions were associated with leadership emergence over and above cognitive intelligence, personality traits, and gender. These findings were observed when emotional intelligence was measured with an ability test but not when it was measured with a self-report scale. Among the dimensions of emotional intelligence, the ability to understand emotions was most consistently associated with leadership emergence.     

Emotional labour and emotional exhaustion: Interpersonal and intrapersonal mechanisms

Abstract

In some occupations, particularly in the service sector, dealing with patients or clients may require an employee to pretend to have emotions that they do not really have, or to actually experience required emotions. The regulation of emotion can be either automatic or controlled. This study extends research on the consequences and processes of emotional labour in two ways. First, it examines how the use of different emotion regulation strategies with patients relates to doctors’ emotional exhaustion. Second, it tests two mechanisms that may explain those relationships. A survey of 345 general practitioners (GPs) working in a large urban community in Spain was conducted for the study. Based on Côté's (2005) social interaction model, GP satisfaction with the responses of their patients was tested as a potential interpersonal mediator between their use of automatic, surface, and deep emotion regulation strategies and their emotional exhaustion. Psychological effort was tested as a potential intrapersonal mediator in the same pathway. Regression analysis indicated that emotion regulation was associated with GP emotional exhaustion when it was performed automatically, but that it had a positive and a neutral association when it was performed using surface and deep acting respectively. The mediating role of interpersonal and intrapersonal factors helped explain the differential associations between the GPs’ emotion regulation strategies and their emotional exhaustion.     

COMPETITION AND GENDER PREJUDICE: ARE DISCRIMINATORY EMPLOYERS DOOMED TO FAIL?

According to Becker's famous theory on discrimination (Gary Becker, 1957 , The Economics of Discrimination, University of Chicago Press), entrepreneurs with a strong prejudice against female workers forgo profits by submitting to their tastes. In a competitive market their firms lack efficiency and are therefore forced to leave. We present new empirical evidence for this prediction by studying the survival of start‐up firms in longitudinal matched employer–employee data. We find that firms with strong preferences for discrimination approximated by a low share of female employees relative to the industry average have significantly shorter survival rates. This is especially relevant for firms starting out with female shares in the lower tail of the distribution. Competition at the industry level additionally reduces firm survival and accelerates the rate at which prejudiced firms are weeded out. We also find evidence for employer learning as highly discriminatory start‐up firms that manage to survive submit to market powers and increase their female workforce over time.     

Attracting talent through diversity at the top: The impact of TMT diversity and firms' efforts to promote diversity on employer attractiveness

At a time where firms encounter a “race for talent”, it is crucial for many MNCs to present themselves as attractive employers. Failing to position themselves in the international labor market can reduce firms' ability to acquire valuable international human capital, thereby generating disadvantageous organizational effects. Against this backdrop, drawing on signaling theory and employer branding literature, our paper aims to shed light on the association between nationality diversity in the executive suite and MNCs' employer attractiveness. Our lines of argument build on the notion that top management team composition can affect MNCs' efforts to promote diversity among their employees. This focus on diversity, in turn, can affect MNCs' employer attractiveness. Examining firms from various European countries, we find that top management team nationality diversity is positively associated with firms' employer attractiveness for foreign job seekers. We also show that a firm's efforts to promote diversity mediate the relationship between TMT nationality diversity and employer attractiveness. We therefore advance the academic debate on diversity as an employer branding tool and a means to enhance employer attractiveness. In practical terms, we also provide valuable insights for firms wishing to transform into (more) diverse entities.     

The role of emotions during mergers and acquisitions: A review of the past and a glimpse into the future

Research on emotions during different phases of the merger and acquisition (M&A) process (i.e., pre-M&A, during M&A and post-M&A) has increased exponentially over the past three decades. However, few attempts have been made to integrate the findings. By systematically reviewing research on emotions during M&As published over the past 30 years, this paper aims to contribute to filling this gap. We organized our findings using a process framework, addressing emotional triggers, the nature of emotions and their dynamics, effects and management. Our review reveals several oversights in research on emotions during M&As, such as the emotional dynamics between the different M&A phases and the role of positive emotions. To address these oversights, future research is encouraged to (a) study emotions following a process-oriented perspective on M&As and include the (interrelationships between) different M&A phases, (b) address the emergence of emotional heterogeneity and homogeneity among organizational members during these phases, (c) investigate the widespread effects of positive emotions and take into account various levels of emotion and (d) explore how emotions can be successfully managed. The paper concludes with a discussion of how these research directions can advance research on emotions during the M&A process.     

Residential Location,Job Location,and Wages: Theory and Empirics

I develop a stylized partial on‐the‐job equilibrium search model that incorporates a spatial dimension. Workers reside on a circle and can move at a cost. Each point on the circle has a wage distribution. Implications about wages and job mobility are drawn from the model and tested on Danish matched employer–employee data. The model predictions hold true. I find that workers working farther away from their residence earn higher wages. When a worker is making a job‐to‐job transition where he/she changes workplace location he/she experiences a higher wage change than a worker making a job‐to‐job transition without changing workplace location. However, workers making a job‐to‐job transition that makes the workplace location closer to the residence experience a wage drop. Furthermore, low‐wage workers and workers with high transportation costs are more likely to make job‐to‐job transitions, but also residential moves.     

Group Emotions: Cutting the Gordian Knots Concerning Terms,Levels of Analysis,and Processes

Abstract

Research has established that groups are pervaded by feelings. But group emotion research within organizational science has suffered in recent years from a lack of terminological clarity, from a narrow focus on small groups, and from an overemphasis on micro-processes of emotion transmission. We address those problems by reviewing and systematically integrating relevant work conducted not only in organizational science, but also in psychology and sociology. We offer a definition of group emotions and sort the conceptual space along four dimensions: group emotion responses, recognition, regulation, and reiteration. We provide evidence that group emotions occur at all levels of analysis, including levels beyond small work groups. The accounts of group emotion emergence at higher levels of analysis differ substantially between organizational science, psychology, and sociology. We review these accounts—emergence through inclination, interaction, institutionalization, or identification—and then synthesize them into one parsimonious model. The consequences of different group emotions are reviewed and further constructs (including emotional aperture, group emotional intelligence, emotional culture, and emotional climate) are discussed. We end with a call for future research on several neglected group emotion topics including the study of discrete shared emotions, emotions at multiple levels, the effects of social network patterns, and effects on group functioning.     

The angry physician-Part 1. The temper-tantruming physician

Angry physicians create problems--for the people they treat and work with, for their administrators, and for their loved ones. Addressing negative emotions is one of the most prevalent organizational and personal challenges facing physician leaders. Solving this problem starts with taking an honest look at the factors and processes that shape physicians' coping patterns. Learning effective emotional management skills is underscored by a simple fact: Emotions are contagious. The Type A behavior pattern (TYABP) refers to an aggressive coping mode. Cross-cultural research suggests that, compared to the general population, physicians show elevated scores on TYABP measures, and that women physicians are at particular risk of developing TYABP. In Part 2 of this series, interpersonal anger management strategies will be presented.